Words & Photos: Laura Austin
The Agenda trade show was going on in our neck of the woods so I decided to make my way up to Long Beach to check out some of of the product hitting stores next season. You'll notice that most of the goods in here aren't exactly what you would be wearing on-hill, but unless you belong to a nudist colony or have some weird snowboard outerwear fetish, there are other seasons when you'll be wearing something other than snow gear. In the gallery above is a mix of everything from street wear, to bags, to electronic accessories, and eyewear that you can expect (or request) to see in your local shops in the upcoming seasons. Start putting together your wishlists now. Let us know what you like and what you don't like in the comment section below.

Words & Photos: Laura Austin
As of April 2nd, 2012 the Nike Chosen Sessions have officially kicked off on top of Silvretta Montafon, Austria. As a culmination of both the Nike Chosen Series and the Nike Chosen Video Crew Contest, the lucky and talented winners from all different regions gathered to see which crew and which individual would be crowned the Chosen one. But these Ams aren’t the only ones sessioning this dream park constructed on top of the Alps, a majority of the Nike Pro Team is in town as well. Turn your head to the right and you see Pettu Piironen sending himself off one of the largest jumps many people have ever seen in person, then you turn your head to the left and you see Jed Anderson getting technical on a stair set. Not only is The Nike Chosen Sessions unique in the way of bringing pros of different disciplines into one park, but the ams also get the chance to ride side-by-side with some of their idols.
Day one of this week-long event consisted of the “Best Line” portion. The different regional winners of the Nike Chosen series on-site contests had to put together their best line though out the whole park setup, leaving room for creativity. However, instead of judges sitting down at the bottom of the park giving immediate scores, each rider is follow-cammed and the footage from that will later be reviewed by the Nike pros… making for a much more laid-back, natural environment.
But then there is a whole other dimension to the contest. While the series winners are doing organized events throughout the week, the video crews have free-reign over the park to create edits that will be showcased and judged at the end of the week. This additional portion really sets the Nike Chosen Sessions apart from most other events in snowboarding and is an opportunity of a lifetime for any amateur snowboarder. “This Must Be The Place” video crew, based out of Salt Lake City, Utah was especially stoked considering they have never been to Europe and for one of them this was their first time out of the United States. “The other crews just had to drive a few hours to get here and we had to fly overseas, making this trip especially nuts for us”, said filmer Connor Brown.
Stay tuned to Snowboardermag.com to see how the rest of the sessions unfold and keep checking http://nikechosensessions.com/ for all the info you need.